“We have no information on their holdings or activities,” she says.
Geronimo’s great grandson, Harlyn Geronimo, is continuing his family’s efforts to regain his ancestor’s remains. He says he and a number of spiritual leaders throughout Indian Country are engaged in ceremonies praying for guidance and the safe return of the remains. He has also said the family is pursuing legal options for the return of the remains.
Jeff Houser, chairman of the Ft. Sill Apache tribe of Oklahoma, insists that the Skull and Bones story is a hoax. His people, descendents of 80 of Geronimo’s people who elected to stay in Oklahoma after their release from prison in 1913, believe that the great leader’s remains are still buried at Ft. Sill. In keeping with Apache taboos against speaking of or disturbing the dead, they are adamant that his grave will remain undisturbed. “He (Geronimo) is where he should be,” says Houser.
Dr. Henrietta Mann, professor emeritus of Native American studies at Montana State University, notes that many Native cultures hold a deep belief in natural justice, believing that a bad act will eventually circle back around to the perpetrator. According to an article published in Indian Country Today, some Apaches now believe that the problems besieging President Bush are in some way the result of his family’s long connection to the defilement of Geronimo’s grave. For her part, Mann, who is Cheyenne, agrees.
“The Cheyenne say that a bad act will return to you multiplied seven times seven,” she says.
--Mary Annette Pember
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